Leadership claiming has long been seen as a key to promoting self-managing teams’ effectiveness. Yet, there is growing evidence that its applicability may falter in situations characterized by a lack of leadership granting. Drawing on a new attribute alignment approach and information processing theory, we build consensus by exploring whether, how, and when leadership claiming-granting alignment—an organic team leadership structure in which team members who claim leadership the most are also granted leadership by others the most—plays a critical role in influencing team effectiveness. Across a multi-wave field study where student teams engaged in a business simulation that unfolded over a 4-week duration, we find that leadership claiming-granting alignment can better improve team effectiveness via team knowledge utilization. In addition, this positive indirect relationship is stronger when team crisis is higher. Overall, our results offer novel insights into identifying an effective team leadership structure while maximizing the potential advantages of informal leadership emergence in team management.
